Universal Credit Local authority led pilots: Lewisham’s experience Objectives

1. To develop an **evidence based definition of vulnerability** for transition and access to Universal Credit

2. To develop **triage mechanisms** for identifying and assessing individuals affected

3. To test an **approach for providing a holistically locally delivered face to face transition support service** which improves the ability of claimants to:

   - Budget and manage monthly payments
   - Sustain tenancies in the social and private rented sector
   - Transact with government services online
   - Access employment and work-focused training The design process: first sketch

Four areas identified as likely to need transitional support under UC. Each area needs to be considered together and in relation to each other (holistic).

Need levels will vary for individuals on each area. Approach needs to be flexible enough to respond to needs as they are presented (flexible). The design process: refining ideas The prototype model for go live

Simple language & focused on main change affecting household

Call to action

Focuses on the financial loss

Dear Amy,

Act now to avoid losing money to pay your rent.

In 2013 there will be major changes to your benefit entitlement.

What is changing? The Government has capped the amount of benefit each non-working household can receive.

- Families will receive no more than £500 per week.
- Single people will receive no more than £350 per week.

How this affects you: Our records show that your total entitlement, including housing benefit and out-of-work benefits, is more than the cap.

Based on this information, your household will lose between £100 and £150 per week in 2013.

This money will be deducted from your housing benefit unless you act now.

What you can do: On the back of this letter you will find information about what you can do to prepare for the changes, and where to go for help.

We will be phoning you in a few days to talk about what support you need. If we think you need further advice, we will offer you a face-to-face appointment.

Yours sincerely,

Universal Credit Pilot Team

www.lewisham.gov.uk The prototype model for go live

20 questions, each with scores and triggers based on the four quadrants...

Books appointments and integrates to HB and customer contact records via CRM... The prototype model for go live

Appointment starts with a calculation demonstrating the financial impact of welfare reform on work....

Support focused conversation looks at:

- Employment
- Financial
- Digital
- Housing

Establishes level of need and makes referrals to key agencies

Better Access

Better off in work by £858.84

Establishes level of need and makes referrals to key agencies

Comments/Suggestions can be directed here. The prototype model for go live

Support plan focuses on the top 3-4 barriers...

Personalised...

Referrals are named and contact the claimant directly...

Dear Amy,

Re: Support Planning Session

Thank you for attending your support planning session on Friday.

At your appointment, we discussed how Universal Credit and the Benefit Cap would impact your household. Using the benefit calculator, I showed you that you would lose £214.18 a week when your benefits are capped this summer and £215.47 a week when Universal Credit is introduced.

I advised you that you have the option to avoid losing this money by finding paid employment, working at least 16 hours a week. If you work 16 hours a week you would be £201.16 better off this summer, even after you have paid for childcare.

If you, or a partner, don’t find paid work, you will lose this money from your housing benefit and you will have to find the extra money to pay your rent.

We discussed how I could support you to prepare for these changes. You told me that you would like more help with:

- Finding a job
- Moving to a more affordable property
- Budgeting your finances

Finding a job

You said that you would be interested in getting some help to find work so that you won’t lose money this summer. We discussed the help available to you and agreed that the best help for you would be to attend the Launch Pad training provided by A4E.

I have contacted A4E for you and booked an appointment for you to see Jenny at A4E next Wednesday, 20th February at 10am. It’s really important that you attend this appointment. If you have any problems getting to your appointment, you must call Jenny on 0208 946 7629.

Moving to a more affordable property

You said that you were in temporary accommodation and have been bidding for social landlord properties through Homereach.

Although your housing is your preferred option, there is shortage of social housing in London. Last year there were more than 7,000 people on the housing register in Lewisham and less than 12% of people in band three were let a property. Only 13 properties with four or more bedrooms were let last year. Because of this, you will wait a number of years before finding social housing that meets your needs. During this time, you will be responsible for paying the difference between your housing benefit and a rent resulting from the benefit cap. If you don’t pay you are likely to be evicted.

Because your rent is high in your current property, we talked about moving out of temporary accommodation into somewhere in the private sector.

I told you that Lewisham Council may be able to provide you with some extra financial help with a deposit or removal costs if you choose to do this.

If you would like to apply for this, the first thing you need to do is look for a property which is affordable for you. The National Association of Estate Agents can help you with this. Visit www.naea.co.uk or call 0846 280 6001.

Once you have found somewhere, you will need to apply for a Discretionary Housing Payment. I have enclosed an application form. If you need help completing this application, you can call 020 8980 8444.

We may be able to provide you with some financial assistance to help with deposits and move costs if you find a property in the private sector through our Discretionary Housing Payment Scheme. I have included an application form with this letter. Once you have found alternative affordable accommodation please complete and return the form to the address given.

Budgeting your finances

You told me that you were concerned about budgeting your money monthly once Universal Credit is introduced. You said that you would be interested in a Credit Union Budgeting account to help you with this. I have arranged for Pete from the Credit Union to contact you to arrange an appointment to look at budgeting accounts with you.

Remember, it is important that you start preparing now. Please make sure you get in touch with these organisations who are all ready to help you.

Yours sincerely,

Karen

Karen Reynolds Universal Credit Support Officer Progress & redesign

524 contacted (200 control group)

362 families contacted and triaged, of these

- 196 appointments completed
- 121 no longer affected (benefit cap)
- 22 appointments pending
- 18 vulnerable but refuse an appointment
- 5 not vulnerable

What have we learnt about the process?

Feedback from customers is good – 97% say the intervention was helpful

I am pleased for all the help I received today, they mean so much. Gives me more confidence and shows me which route to take. Everything has been explained in a way that I can understand and now help myself.

Triage and basic advice over the phone takes about 20 minutes, appointments & follow up support plans take about 2 hours

There are things we can do better to get people engaged & we need to think about sustaining the positive energy to act Learning about our residents: FINANCIAL

Benefit cap loss ranges under £1 to over £200 a week...limited awareness of the personal impact and strategies for mitigating the impact. ‘Work does not pay’ is a widely held belief amongst this group.

48% have a bank account that supports direct debit and say they can cope with UC going into their account with some basic budgeting advice

42% have applied for a crisis loan in the past

11% have significant debt issues and have been referred to the CAB for intensive debt management advice.

46 referrals to the Credit Union (although relatively high existing membership levels)...when they show up, nearly all take on a service...but they aren’t showing up! 63% say they have internet access in their homes (not mobile) and can use it independently...although most only use it for social media at the moment

A further 24% say they have access in their homes and can use it with help from friends or family...language usually being the main barrier

This leaves 13% who need access and support...based on a 40,000 Lewisham caseload, this is 5,200 people needing access and support to complete a claim

The numbers needing support might be higher...the unknown at the moment is the complexity of the form.

Learning from the replacement social fund schemes...people will turn up if they have something urgent or are concerned...if they need to do something online, it needs to be close to where they present. The overwhelming initial claimant response to the benefit cap is to try and find cheaper housing...but what people want is social housing.

For most families with more than four children, there is no housing solution to the benefit cap.

31% have never been responsible for paying rent direct to their landlord.

39% are already in rent arrears.

Mixed views on rent as a priority...‘I am not going to worry about these changes because I think they are ridiculous. I would rather buy things for my children then worry about the shortfall of my rent.’ Less than 3% of this group have been in paid employment in the last 12 months

40% say they are not looking for work.

43% cite childcare as the main barrier to work...but only 23% request help or advice to fund or find childcare at appointments, preferring to use informal or other childcare networks.

Strongly held belief that having children means work doesn’t pay...some even had example calculations from JCP in their hands to prove this to us at appointments. The benefit cap means they ALL will be better off...some significantly.

For most of these families, finding paid work is the only way to avoid the benefit cap. If they don’t they will not be afford to live and budgeting advice under UC becomes irrelevant. Learning: TRIAGE AND COMPLEX NEEDS

There are some predictors of vulnerability but a set of questions and triggers on its own is unlikely to tell you who needs more on-going support...some examples:

Mr and Mrs H live in a 5 bedroom house with their 7 children and stand to lose £276 a week after the benefit cap. Mrs H has fled domestic violence in the past and Mr H has served 20 years in prison. Mr H doesn’t claim JSA because he doesn’t want to look for work as he thinks there is no point given his record. Mr and Mrs H have already been in contact with HOC because their landlord said they would start eviction proceedings because of the benefit cap.

Ms E has 5 children, 3 of who still live with her. She is currently in a Rent Incentive Scheme property which is too big for her needs and will lose £350 a week after the benefit cap. Ms E has had a troubled life which has involved physical and sexual abuse. She understandably has very low self-esteem and is experiencing depression and anxiety. Ms E said she would like to look for work but the JobCentre weren’t interested in helping her.

Ms T lives in temporary accommodation in a property provided by Hyde. She is a single parent with 3 children and stands to lose £93 a week after the benefit cap. She hasn’t worked for a number of years. Ms T has moved frequently, one of her children has been in three different schools and is currently placed in a pupil referral unit in Lewisham.

At the appointment discovered that Mrs H had worked as a cleaner. After her appointment she contacted her old boss to get required 16 hours.

Despite initial enthusiasm and frequent telephone calls, Ms E failed to follow up on referrals for intensive family support offered.

We made a referral for Ms T for intensive employment support. By the time the referral was followed up, she had already found 16 hours work as a carer. Designing a complex needs support service

Model developed so far identifies ‘standard’ and ‘non-standard’ claimants and has developed a model for families needing **SOME transitional support** but the model is not sufficient for those requiring **INTENSIVE transitional support**.

Next phase – developing a model for intensive transitional support

Building a case work model which **glues** everything together – if one area falls apart, so will all the others.

Focused on **sustaining the impact** of the intervention – investing in a casework approach now to stop people re-presenting to us at a later stage.

Focuses on **behaviour change** (resilience, tenacity, responsibility) – which is ultimately the goal of UC. Key messages for the LSSF

- Housing and employment need to be built into local approaches – even if it just linking better to existing provision

- Universal Credit can’t be seen in isolation from other welfare reforms – our residents don’t separate them

- We need to have smarter ways of identifying vulnerability – this is beyond just the ability to budget and access the internet

- Behaviour ‘nudge’ needs to be integrated into our LSSF models – it is what UC is trying to achieve

- We can start testing some of this now – welfare reforms are happening now, what people need to do for these are not that different from what they need to do for UC Justine Roberts Universal Credit Pilot Manager

justine.roberts@lewisham.gov.uk